Selectable audio and mixed background sound for voice messaging system

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business by selectably mixing one or more sound files with a telephone caller&#39;s voice message, either as background for that message or embedded within the message. Or, the mixing may occur within a telephone conversation between parties. The disclosed techniques enable alleviating some of the problems that result from distance communication (as contrasted to face-to-face communication). In particular, context information (such as emotional context) can be provided through appropriate use of background sound and/or embedded audio files. The disclosed techniques may also make communication through voice mail exchange more enjoyable and/or increase its productivity.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/053,554 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,965,824 B2), filed Mar. 22, 2008,which is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/632,177(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,424,098), filed Jul. 31, 2003, which is aContinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/782,773, (now U.S.Pat. No. 7,003,083 B2), filed Feb. 13, 2001, which are herebyincorporated herein by reference. The present invention is related tothe following commonly-assigned U.S. patent applications, which arehereby incorporated herein by reference: U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/782,564 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,437 B2), entitled “AudioRenderings for Expressing Non-Audio Nuances”; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/782,772, entitled “Recording and Receiving Voice Mail withFreeform Bookmarks”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/868,485 (nowabandoned), entitled “Selectable Audio and Mixed Background Sound forVoice Messaging System”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/868,487(now U.S. Pat. No. 7,512,219 B2), entitled “Selectable Audio and MixedBackground Sound for Voice Messaging System”.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a computer system, and deals moreparticularly with methods, systems, computer program products, andmethods of doing business by selectably mixing one or more sound fileswith a telephone caller's voice message (or within the caller'sperson-to-person conversation), either as background for that message orembedded within the message.

2. Description of the Related Art

Face-to-face communication between people involves many parallelcommunication paths. We derive information from body language, fromwords, from intonation, from facial expressions, from the distancebetween our bodies, and so forth. Distance communication, such as phonecalls, e-mail exchange, and voice mail, on the other hand, involves onlya few of these communication paths. Users may therefore have to takeextra actions (which may or may not be successful) if they wish to tryto overcome the limitations so imposed.

Emotions may be particularly difficult to convey when using distancecommunication. For example, if a person is angry, it can be quitedifficult to communicate that emotion in the words of an e-mail message.While a voice mail message has the advantage of conveying the speaker'stone of voice, it still may not adequately represent the speaker'semotion. As another example of the difficulties of distancecommunication, suppose a speaker has many different topics to cover.When communicating in person, the speaker can use changes in bodylanguage to indicate a change in subject. In a voice mail message,however, it may be difficult for the listener to appreciate when onetopic has ended and another has begun.

Distance communicating is becoming more prevalent in our society. Manypeople use mobile phones, answering machines, and/or sophisticated voicemail systems extensively today, and thus we have become accustomed tobeing able to reach someone (or at least their telephone recordingsystem) by phone at all times of the day or night. (Hereinafter, thephrase “voice mail system” will be used to refer to telephone recordingsystems which include computerized voice mail systems as well as simpleanswering machines, unless otherwise noted.) A caller might place a callat a time that is convenient for her, even though she knows that thecalled party is unable to receive the message in person at that time:she simply leaves a message, and the called party is then free toreceive the message some time later, at his own convenience. A“telephone tag” scenario may result, where a sequence of messages isexchanged by way of voice mail systems, without the people actuallyspeaking directly to one another.

For people whose jobs involve a great deal of telephone contact, such asexecutives, salespeople, customer service people, and so forth, thenumber (and length) of messages that accumulate in their voice mailsystem over the course of a day may be quite large. Similarly, peoplewho are unable to answer their telephone for extended periods (forexample, someone who is on vacation, traveling on business, interactingby phone with people in distant time zones, or simply too busy withother commitments) may build up a large backlog of unanswered messages.The process of listening to all of the accumulated messages cantherefore be quite tedious, as well as time-consuming. If the listener'sconcentration is interrupted during the playback process, it may benecessary to start the playback of a particular message again, requiringeven more of the listener's time and further testing his patience.

In addition, people who must make a large number of telephone callsoften find the calling process tedious, especially if they areunsuccessful in reaching the called party in person and must insteadleave a message. It would be preferable to provide a way of improvingthe distance communication process for callers and called parties.

Accordingly, what is needed is a technique that alleviates disadvantagesin distance communications, providing a more enjoyable and moreproductive way for people to communicate by telephone and to exchangevoice mail messages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a technique thatalleviates disadvantages in distance communications.

Another object of the present invention is to provide this technique byenabling a more enjoyable and more productive way for people tocommunicate by telephone.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide this techniqueby enabling a more enjoyable and more productive way to exchange voicemail messages.

A further object of the present invention is to provide this techniqueby adding contextual information to audio messages.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide theseadvantages by adding background sound to a voice mail message (or,alternatively, to a telephone conversation).

Another object of the present invention is to provide these advantagesby using embedded audio files as voice mail messages or within voicemail messages (or, alternatively, within a telephone conversation).

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide new methods ofdoing business, whereby the sound files to be used during (or insteadof) a voice mail message or telephone conversation can be merchandisedto consumers.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forthin part in the description and in the drawings which follow and, inpart, will be obvious from the description or may be learned by practiceof the invention.

To achieve the foregoing objects, and in accordance with the purpose ofthe invention as broadly described herein, in a first aspect the presentinvention provides methods, systems, computer program products, andmethods of doing business by enhancing voice mail messages. Thistechnique comprises incorporating one or more selected background soundswith a voice mail message for playback to a listener. In selectedembodiments, at least one of the background sounds may provide emotionalcues for the voice mail message, or may be a theme song associated witha speaker who leaves the voice mail message. The background sounds maybe selected in a number of ways, including: by a speaker of the voicemail message; programmatically; by using a default background sound forthe speaker; making a dynamic selection from among a plurality ofbackground sounds (including random selection); using a profileassociated with the speaker; or based upon an identification of anintended recipient of the voice mail message. Incorporating thebackground sound(s) may further comprise conferencing the selectedbackground sounds into a 3-way call between a speaker of the voice mailmessage and a receiver thereof. Telephone conversations may be enhancedin a similar manner.

In another aspect, the present invention provides methods, systems,computer program products, and methods of doing business by providingaudio input for voice mail messages and telephone conversations. Thistechnique comprises inserting one or more selected audio files into avoice mail message for playback to a listener. In selected embodiments,a single audio file may be inserted in the voice mail message more thanonce, and at least one of the audio files may be an audio signature or atheme song associated with a speaker who records the voice mail message.The audio file(s) may even comprise the entire voice mail message.

An apparatus is also disclosed for improving voice mail messaging,comprising: means for transmitting a voice message from a user of theapparatus to a separately-located recording means; means for storing oneor more pre-recorded sound files on the apparatus; selection means forselecting, from the pre-recorded sound files, one or more of: (1) abackground sound and (2) an audio file to be transmitted; andtransmission means for transmitting the selection to the recording meansfor use with the transmitted voice message.

A method of merchandising pre-recorded sound files is defined,comprising steps of receiving requests for selected ones of thepre-recorded sound files for use as background files to be incorporatedwith voice mail messages and/or for use as audio files to be insertedinto voice mail messages, and providing the selected ones, in responseto receiving the requests. In selected embodiments, this method may beimplemented by a for-fee service provider, or by marketing a telephonefor use in improving distance communications.

The present invention will now be described with reference to thefollowing drawings, in which like reference numbers denote the sameelement throughout.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A through 1F are flow diagrams illustrating how a caller mayenhance a voice mail message by selecting one or more background soundsthat are offered by a receiving system (such as a voice mail system),according to preferred embodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A through 2C are flow diagrams illustrating how a caller mayenhance a voice mail message by selecting one or more background soundsthat are provided from the caller's telephone, according to preferredembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating how a caller may enhance a voicemail message through use of a predetermined background sound that isprovided from the caller's telephone, according to preferred embodimentsof the present invention;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are flow diagrams illustrating how a caller may enhancea voice mail message by selecting one or more audio files that areoffered by a receiving system, where these audio files are to beinserted into a voice mail message, according to preferred embodimentsof the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating how a caller may enhance atelephone conversation by selecting one or more background sounds thatare provided from the caller's telephone, according to preferredembodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are flow diagrams illustrating how a caller may enhancea voice mail message by sending, from a telephone or calling system, asound file or identification thereof (which may be used in place of aspoken message, or in addition to a spoken message), according topreferred embodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 7A and 7B are flow diagrams illustrating how a background sound oraudio file may be obtained for use in a voice mail message or telephoneconversation, where a fee may optionally be imposed by the provider ofthat background sound or audio file, according to preferred embodimentsof the present invention;

FIG. 8 provides a flowchart depicting logic with which preferredembodiments may implement playback of a voice mail message; and

FIGS. 9A and 9B depict examples of data structures that may be used tofacilitate implementation of preferred embodiments of the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention improves distance communications which usetelephones. A number of advantages of the present invention are realizedwhen communicating by exchanging voice mail messages, and otheradvantages are realized during person-to-person telephone conversations.The disclosed techniques enable associating additional information,beyond a person's voice and words, or alternatively instead of aperson's voice and words, with a telephone message or conversation.These techniques may be used to provide emotional cues for messages orconversations, thereby supplementing the contextual informationthereof—or perhaps simply improving the listener's perception of themessage or her reaction to the message (or conversation). (Hereinafter,the term “message” or “voice mail message” will be used to referequivalently to telephone conversations, unless otherwise indicated.)

As an example of how this contextual information supplements a voicemail message, the previously-discussed caller who is angry may wish toleave his message with a background of rolling thunder, or perhapspunctuate his message with the sound of inserted lightning strikes. Or,a caller may choose to have a personal “theme song” or “audiblesignature” (where this audible signature, also referred to herein as anaudio signature, may be, for example, a few selected bars of herfavorite song). In this example, the caller may select her personaltheme song as the background for her voice mail messages, and/or she maywish to precede (or perhaps end) her messages with her audiblesignature. Once the teachings of the present invention are known,individual callers may use them in a myriad of ways to enhance theirdistance communications through added background and audio files.

For purposes of the discussion herein, the terms “background sound” and“background file” are used to refer to a sound that is preferably mixedor blended with a concurrently-spoken message to the listener. The term“audio file”, on the other hand, is used herein to refer to a sound thatis used alone, without concurrent mixing of a caller's voice. (However,an audio sound may be preceded and/or followed by a caller's voicemessage, where that voice message may or may not be blended with abackground sound, according to the teachings disclosed herein.) The term“file” is used hereinafter to refer to sound files (including, but notlimited to, music files) that may serve as either background sounds oraudio files.

A number of different embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented using the teachings disclosed herein. Preferred ones ofthese embodiments will now be described.

In some preferred embodiments, a telephone caller will be offered aselection of sounds or music files that are available from a receivingvoice mail system (VMS). In this case, the VMS preferably prompts thecaller to select the desired file. The VMS may present a list from whichthe caller makes a selection (for example, with a recorded voice thatstates “press 1 to select Vivaldi's ‘Four Seasons’, press 2 to selectthe crashing of the surf at Half Moon Bay”, and so forth). Or, the listmay be already known to callers of a particular VMS, for example byinstructions on a printed reference card. Or, if the caller's phone hasa display available (such as that provided with a screen phone orWeb-enabled cellular phone), then the VMS may perhaps transmit a list ofselections to the display (for example, using data over voicetransmission; using shared voice and data transmission; using ShortMessage Service, or “SMS”, techniques; and so forth). Other techniquesfor presenting a selection list may be used alternatively. The callermay indicate her selection in a number of ways. As one example, herresponse to the prompting of the VMS may comprise a numeric identifierthat she transmits using the dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) capabilityof a touch-tone-enabled phone or equivalent thereto. Or, her phone mayhave a touch-sensitive display screen, which she presses at anappropriate location to indicate her selection. As still anotheralternative, she may have a phone with programmable keys or buttons,where a particular key is operably associated with a correspondingselection. As yet another alternative, a particular caller may have aphone in which a default selection has been pre-stored, or which isadapted to dynamically choosing a selection in an automated manner(including random selection). Other selection techniques which aredescribed herein, as well as selection techniques that will be obviousto one of skill in the art (such as voice activation using a spokenresponse), may be used as well.

In other embodiments, the caller may explicitly select—for example, atthe time she is leaving a message—a desired file (or an identificationthereof) that will be sent to the VMS, along with her message, withoutthe VMS offering selections. In this case, the caller's selection of thedesired file may be made in similar ways to those described forresponding to the VMS' prompt (such as pressing keys to transmit a DTMFtone, pressing one or more programmed keys or buttons or atouch-sensitive screen, etc.), where these actions may be interpreted bythe caller's phone, causing the phone to transmit a file identifier or arecorded file corresponding to the caller's selection. The transmittedfile may be locally stored in the caller's phone, or in local storagethat is available to the phone (such as a removable diskette or othermedia which may be locally attached, or perhaps connected via a wirelesscommunication network such as a Bluetooth piconet). Or, with anappropriately adapted VMS, the caller may send an address such as aUniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies the storage location ofthe file she wishes to use with her message. (URLs may also be used foroffering selections to the caller from the VMS, with reference to theabove-described embodiments.) This URL may refer to a file stored at thereceiving VMS, or perhaps a file that the VMS must download from aremote location such as an intranet or the Internet. As yet anotheralternative, a telephone company (“telco”) system may be adapted todetecting the presence of a URL to be used as a background or audiofile, and the telco may retrieve the corresponding file from its localstorage or from a remote location such as the Internet. When URLs aresupported, the capability exists to select and download background andaudio files from a music or sound provider service. (This downloadcapability will be discussed in more detail below, with reference toFIGS. 7A and 7B.) As an alternative to downloading background and audiofiles, these files may be played directly from their remote location.

Furthermore, instead of allowing the caller to explicitly select a filewhile making a call, the caller's phone may be adapted for sending adefault file (or an identification thereof) to be used as the backgroundor audio associated with this caller's messages. This may be useful, forexample, for callers who wish to use theme songs and audible signatures.The choice of default file may be fixed in some cases, either by a phonethat provides only one choice or by the caller's previous configurationof her phone to use a single default file. Or, a phone may be programmedwith multiple files that may be transmitted for use with the caller'smessage, where a selection from among these multiple files is madedynamically—perhaps in a random fashion, or in a predetermined orderedfashion. A default may be specific, or it may be more general. Forexample, the caller's default may be a specific song such as Beethoven's“Eroica”, or a more general category such as “anything by Beethoven”.Providing selectable files and/or default files enables new methods ofdoing business whereby phone manufacturers, service providers, orafter-market services provide phones that are adapted to appeal toparticular listeners. For example, a phone may be marketed with aselection of nature sounds, or a selection of country music songs, or amix of different types of songs for use as background or audioinsertions, or perhaps a collection of “one-liners” by famous comedians(preferably for use as audio insertions, rather than as backgroundsounds). Use of general categories as defaults may be a preferableapproach when the caller's phone is sending an identification of abackground or audio file that is to be obtained by the VMS (or by thetelco), rather than sending the file itself, as this approach makes itmore likely that the VMS or telco will be able to satisfy the caller'srequest and thus provide the desired contextual information for hermessage.

As yet another alternative, callers may have an identifier (such as ashort personal identification number, or “PIN”) which is used toidentify particular callers to a phone or phone system. Using thistechnique, a caller may provide his identifier from his own phone orfrom any phone of his choosing, and the identifier may be used to locatehis stored preferences. For example, this technique enables each memberof a household to have their own default background sounds even whenthey call from a single phone or phone number.

The downloading of audio clips to cellular phones, where the audio fileis used for the ringing tone to notify the phone's owner of an incomingcall, is known in the art. Companies such as “iobox” and Sonera (whichmarkets a service known as “Zed”) provide this type of service on apay-per-use basis, where consumers can select to download one or moreclips to their cell phone for a fee. (See http://www.iobox.com/iobox andhttp://www.sonera.fi/english/ orhttp://www.ptel.zed.com/html/login/login.html for more information onthese services.) However (to the best of the inventors' knowledge andbelief), these services are limited to provision of ringing tones, anddo not contemplate providing files for use as background or audio foruse with a voice mail message.

In yet other embodiments, a profile or subscription service may be usedfor selecting a file for a particular caller's messages. For example, acaller may configure her phone to use a profile such that it selectsfrom among selections that are accessible thereto according to a set ofrules or conditions; or, this type of profile service may alternativelybe provided by another entity, such as by the VMS or telco. As anexample of using a profile, a particular caller's messages may beaugmented with jazz on Fridays, or beach music on Saturdays.Furthermore, embodiments may provide for selecting a file based upon thecalled number, such as providing a selection from The Three Tenors whenthe caller calls her mother, love songs when she calls her husband, andso forth. Or, the caller may subscribe to a service which dynamicallyselects files—e.g. based on preferences that the caller has stored withthis service—or which provides a file (or files) already selected bythis caller. This type of subscription service may be offered by thereceiving VMS or telco, or may be accessed from the VMS or telco inresponse to receiving a message from a particular caller. A profileservice may also be implemented by the receiving VMS or telco. In thiscase, the caller (or her phone) may transmit a caller identifier whichis used to locate a previously-stored profile or preferences file inorder to retrieve the background or audio file for this caller'smessages. Phones may be marketed which are preconfigured (orconfigurable) with a phone identifier as well, such that the phoneidentifier is used when retrieving the background or audio file.

These embodiments may be used for leaving a message with one or morebackground sounds over a spoken message, for enabling the caller toleave an audio-only message (which may comprise more than one differentaudio file) or to insert one or more audio files into a voice mailmessage, and/or for leaving voice messages that combine backgroundsounds and inserted audio files. (In the latter case, the backgroundsound is preferably suppressed or interrupted while the inserted audiofile plays to the listener.) Furthermore, these embodiments may also beused during a person-to-person conversation, if desired. For example, atherapist may choose a soothing background sound for phone conversationswith his patients (perhaps as a substitute for his soothing in-personpersona), or a stockbroker may choose to insert the sound of a cashregister into his conversations with clients (e.g. to convey the contextof successful business dealings). Leaving an audio-only message mayallow the VMS to obtain calling party information in conjunction withthe message. Audio-only messages may be useful in situations where, forexample, the caller gets switched to a person's voice mail system andthen decides to leave an audio message (such as his theme song oraudible signature) since he is unable to complete his person-to-personvoice message. (While prior art systems provide a type of “audio-only”message whereby computerized calling services play a pre-recorded audiofile to a listener or the called party's voice mail, this is a differentcapability than provided by the present invention. This type of priorart system is typically only available to businesses or organizations,rather than to consumers. The present invention, on the other hand,makes audio-only capabilities easily accessible to the consumer, anddoes not require the caller to pre-record anything; rather, the callermay simply make a selection from available choices when using thepresent invention, as will be described in more detail below.Furthermore, the prior art does not teach use of audio-only files asaudio signatures, as is described herein.)

In embodiments where the caller's phone transmits a file to a receivingVMS, telco, or to the called party, the phone preferably comprises mediato store the source file or files (such as memory, flash storage, orremovable storage such as a CD-ROM)—which may be pre-stored when thephone is purchased by a consumer, as stated above, or which the consumermay selectively load onto the phone (from his own music CD collection,perhaps, or from a subscription service); selection means for selectingwhat to send (which may comprise accepting the caller's input in one ormore ways, or automatically or programmatically making a selectionwithout the caller's input, as has been described); and means totransmit the caller's selection to the receiver. The transmission meansmay be simply the concurrent phone call, whereby the background or audiofile contents may be played as the caller is speaking. Alternatively,the background or audio file contents may be suppressed from thecaller's hearing: the file can be mixed with the caller's speech andtransmitted, without being played out.

As an option to transmitting the file as the caller speaks, the file mayalternatively be transmitted before the caller's message. In situationswhich do not involve person-to-person conversation, the file may even betransmitted after the caller's spoken message, or the transmission maybe intermingled between spoken segments of the message. Transmittingfiles after the caller has completed his spoken message is particularlybeneficial when a large file, or a file of relatively long duration, isto be transmitted. Furthermore, rather than requiring the caller to stayon the phone during the transmission, in one embodiment the phone may beadapted to keeping the connection alive even though the caller has hungup (or otherwise indicated the end of his phone call), in a mannersimilar to use of a “hold” button on an office phone of the prior art,and then playing the file for recording by the receiver (and breakingthe connection when the transmission is complete).

Note that many voice mail systems have restrictions on the duration of apermitted message. It may therefore be necessary to truncate a file tobe used as a background sound before (or during) its transmission.Furthermore, a background file may be of longer (or shorter) durationthan its corresponding message (or message segment). Refer to thedescription of message playback (as illustrated by FIG. 8), below, for adiscussion of accommodating background files in these situations.

To optimize the separate transmission of the background or audio file,its contents may optionally be compressed, using compression techniqueswhich are known in the art, in order to reduce the time required. Thecompression capability may be provided by the phone, or alternatively,the phone may transmit files that have previously been compressed.

Furthermore, the phone may have the capability for dynamically loadingnew files that may be used in subsequent messages (as mentioned above).For example, a separate connection (such as a Universal Serial Bus, or“USB”, connection) may be provided, whereby the phone is operablyconnected to a computer or other device on which background and/or audiofiles have been stored. This device may then be used to transmitbackground and/or audio file contents to the phone for subsequent usewith voice mail messages. Phones are known in the art which combinevoice capability with MP3 sound transmission capability. See, forexample, the discussion athttp://www.wirednews.com/news/print/0,1294,39271,00.html, whichdescribes a new use for cell phones as portable music-reception devices.However, to the best of the inventors' knowledge and belief, this is aneither-or approach where the phone may be used as a phone or as an MP3receiver/player, but not both at the same time, and the inventorsbelieve that it is not known in the art to enable a caller toselectively combine music files with his spoken message as disclosedherein.

In some embodiments, background or audio file content may be provided atthe telco, and mixed into the voice mail message. That is, the callerpreferably transmits an identification of a file to the telco, and thetelco locates a file corresponding to this identifier, mixes the filecontents with the voice message, and transmits the result to the calledparty (or her VMS). Several approaches may be used for providing thisfunctionality. In one approach, the caller dials a special number at thetelco, where that number corresponds to a system that is adapted forbridging to the proper called party (e.g. using a voice response unit).In another approach, the telco system may be adapted to listen for acommand (such as a “*” key pressed during a call), and to invoke a typeof specialized 3-way calling feature in response whereby the additional“party” conferenced in by the telco is now the playout of the backgroundor audio file, rather than an additional voice stream. As yet anotherapproach, the caller's telephone may be modified to send a triggeringsignal to the telco, which the telco system is adapted for receiving andthen acting upon. Or, the telco—which knows the caller's phonenumber—can access stored preferences for this caller using that phonenumber. (In some cases, the VMS may also use this latter technique forobtaining a caller's preferences.)

There are also a number of alternative embodiments for the manner inwhich a stored voice mail message with associated background file(s)and/or embedded audio file(s) is played back to the listener (i.e. thecalled party). When the caller has transmitted an identification of thefile, but not the contents of the file, then some entity is responsiblefor locating the content, as has been discussed above. Thisresponsibility may be placed upon the receiving VMS, the telco, orperhaps the called party's phone (or, alternatively, one or more suchentities may share the responsibility). The located content must then bemixed with the voice mail message (except in the case of an audio-onlymessage). This mixing may also be performed in a number of differentways. The mixing may be done by the receiving VMS as the message isbeing received and recorded, or by the telco as the caller's message istransmitted to the VMS for recording (e.g. by conferencing a backgroundsound onto the appropriate phone line). Or, the VMS may mix the messageas it is being played to the listener. As another alternative, the VMSmay mix messages at any time between receiving (and recording) thereofand playing the message to the listener. (For example, a mixingoperation may be periodically invoked that will search for storedmessages which have not yet been mixed.) Or, the telco may mix themessage as it is being played for the listener (or at an arbitrary time,if the message is stored at or accessible to the telco), or thelistener's phone may perhaps do the mixing if it is appropriatelyadapted. As yet another alternative, the caller's phone may do themixing, such that the VMS receives an already-mixed message. (In thislatter case, the caller may perhaps explicitly request the mixingoperation, or the caller's phone may be adapted such that itautomatically initiates the mixing.)

Note that several embodiments described herein require modifications totelephones used by the caller and/or the called party, whereas otherembodiments localize changes to non-consumer systems such as the VMSand/or telco. Implementations falling within the first of thesecategories are preferably backward-compatible, such that telephoneswhich do not implement the techniques of the present invention are alsosupported.

As an alternative to mixing the file(s) with the recorded voice mailmessage prior to delivery to the listener, the VMS or telco mayalternatively “mark” the message. That is, a process may be performedthat associates the background or audio file(s) with the voice mailmessage, yet does not physically mix them. The mixing then preferablyoccurs as the message is being played to the listener.

Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, which will be usedto illustrate operation of preferred embodiments in more detail.

FIGS. 1A through 1F illustrate how a voice mail message may be enhancedby selecting one or more background sound files to be mixed with thevoice message upon playback to the called party, where these backgroundsound files are selected from choices that are available at the receiver(i.e. the system with which the caller is communicating). These figuresdiffer in when the background sound file is selected, how many soundfiles are selected, and how changes in background sound are handled bythe receiver. Each of these figures will now be described.

In FIG. 1A, the caller 100 dials a number (which may be the calledparty's number, or perhaps a voice mail service to which the calledparty subscribes), as shown at 102. The call is answered 103 by the VMS101, and the message recording starts 104. At some point (in thepreferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1A, at the start of the message,before the caller begins speaking), the VMS prompts 105 the caller forhis background choice. The caller then chooses a background, or choosesnot to use a background, which may be done (for example) by using DTMFtones as shown at 106. (Alternatively, the caller's selection may bemade prior to dialing the called party's number, or before the call isanswered, without waiting for a prompt from the VMS. This pre-selectionmay occur, for example, by use of a default or preference of the caller,or perhaps through an explicit action taken by the caller. It will beobvious how the scenarios depicted in the examples may be modified forsuch alternatives.) The VMS saves this selection internally 107. (Notethat the receiving VMS preferably does not store the sound of the DTMFtones for the called party to hear, but rather stores them for furtherprogrammatic processing.) The structures that may be used for internallystoring this information will be described below, with reference toFIGS. 9A and 9B. The caller then begins speaking his voice message(108), and hangs up 109 when he is finished. The VMS then stopsrecording for this message (110).

Note that while the example scenarios provided in the figures refer touse of DTMF tones and program buttons, this is for purposes ofillustration and not of limitation. Alternatively, any suitabletechnique for supplying input from the caller, including use of voicerecognition by the receiving VMS to interpret the caller's spokenselection(s) or command(s), may be used instead.

The interactions shown in FIG. 1B are identical in elements 102 through108, whereby the caller 100 initiates the phone call, selects abackground sound in response to a request from the VMS, makes hisselection (which is recorded by the VMS), and then begins speaking. Atsome point after the caller has been speaking his message, he elects tochange the background sound. Preferably, he indicates his desire to makethis change by pressing a predetermined key sequence that sends a DTMFtone as a signal to the VMS, such as the “*” key (as shown at 120 inFIG. 1B). The VMS then preferably prompts 121 the caller again, for hisnew background choice. The caller may now choose a different background,or he may choose to have no background for his upcoming message segment,which is preferably conveyed by using DTMF tones as shown at 122. TheVMS saves this new selection internally (123). The caller then continuesspeaking his voice message (124). He may repeat the process of changinghis background sound more times (not shown in FIG. 1B), if desired, andeventually hangs up 109 when he is finished, causing the VMS to stoprecording for this message (110).

FIG. 1C depicts a process for leaving a message with a background soundthat is similar to FIG. 1A, but differs in the timing of making thecaller's selection. In FIG. 1C, the caller 100 first speaks his entiremessage (108), and then preferably presses a key sequence that sendsDTMF tones to the VMS to indicate that he would like to select abackground sound (as shown at 130). (Alternatively, the VMS 101 may beadapted to always request selection of a background sound uponcompletion of a message, rather than requiring an explicit input signalfrom the caller.) Upon receiving the caller's indication, the VMS thensends the selection prompt 131, which the caller answers at 132 in amanner similar to that described for FIGS. 1A and 1B. The VMS then savesthe selection (133), and the call ends (109, 110).

The interactions shown in FIG. 1D are similar to those in FIG. 1C,except that the caller elects to change the background sound during hismessage. These interactions differ from FIG. 1B, where the caller madeeach new background selection before speaking the corresponding segmentof the message: in FIG. 1D, the caller 100 selects each background afterhe has finished the corresponding message segment. Similar to FIG. 1C,the caller preferably indicates his desire to request a background bypressing a predetermined key sequence that sends a signal to the VMS,which is represented in FIG. 1D as the “*” key (as shown at 140). TheVMS then prompts 141 the caller for the background to be associated withthe first message segment, which has just been recorded. The callerchooses a background, or chooses to have no background for this segment(142), and the VMS saves this selection (143). The caller then beginsspeaking again (144), for the next segment of his message. If he wishesto change the background again, before his voice message is complete, heagain presses the key sequence to send a signal to the VMS, which isfollowed by the prompting, selecting, and internal storing steps (notshown in FIG. 1D). Once the final message segment has been spoken, thecaller may press the key again (145) to select the background for thisfinal segment. (Alternatively, he may omit this step in someembodiments, causing the VMS to record a choice of “no background”.) TheVMS prompts 146 the caller for this (final) background selection, whichhe signals 147 using the DTMF tones. The VMS records this selection(148), and the caller then hangs up (109), causing message recording tostop (110).

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1E, the caller 100 may select abackground sound at any arbitrary time during recording of a voice mailmessage. As shown at 108, the caller has already started speaking hisvoice mail message, and at some point decides to select a background (asshown at 150, again using a predetermined key sequence such as “*” tosignal the VMS 101 that the caller wishes to choose a background). As inthe previous interactions, the VMS preferably prompts 151 the caller forhis selection, which is conveyed using DTMF tones (152). This selectionis then recorded (153). An implementation of the present invention maychoose whether the background now selected applies to thealready-recorded message, or to the upcoming message, or perhaps to theentire message. In any of these cases, the caller continues speaking(154), and when he is done, the caller hangs up (109) and the VMS stopsrecording (110). Or, the caller may make his selection 150, 152 at theend of his message, in which case he does not continue speaking.Furthermore, an implementation may provide the capability for the callerto select a background when none had been selected earlier, and/or toreplace a previously-selected background (not shown in the figures), ina similar manner to prior art voice mail systems which allow a caller tolisten to her recorded message, delete, and then re-record the spokenmessage.

The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1F allows the caller 100 to selectmultiple background sounds, each requested at arbitrary points duringthe voice mail message. Again, the caller may press a key sequence suchas the “*” key at any time (shown at 150 in FIG. 1F), in the same mannerdescribed for FIG. 1E. The selection process is also analogous to thatused for FIG. 1E (and the background selection may again apply to theprior or the subsequent segment of the voice mail message, or to theentire message, as desired for a particular implementation of thepresent invention). (When the changed background is to apply to theentire message, any previously-selected background information ispreferably overridden or discarded.) Now, however, after the callercontinues speaking (154), instead of hanging up as shown in FIG. 1E, hemay press a different key sequence (shown as the “#” key at 160 in FIG.1F) to explicitly indicate the boundary of a new message segment. Inresponse to receiving the DTMF tone corresponding to this “#” key, theVMS 101 now saves a segment marker (161). (A data structure that may beused to store messages with segment markers is described in more detailwith reference to FIGS. 9A and 9B.). The segment marker may comprise apointer or other indicator to where this segment begins. Note, however,that the caller is not selecting a background sound at this point.Preferably, a segment marker is used to indicate a change from using onebackground file to using another. Or, the background file that was ineffect in response to request 150 may continue across this change insegments. In the former case (i.e. when the background sound is affectedby the segment marker), when the implementation is associatingbackground file selections with previously-recorded message segments,then this is an indication that the message segment that has now beenended by request 160 is to use the background selected at 152; or, ifthe implementation is associating background files with upcoming messagesegments, then request 160 is an indication that the upcoming segment(which begins at 162 and continues until the caller hangs up) is to usethe background selected at 152. The remaining interactions in FIG. 1Fare similar to those which have been described for FIGS. 1A through 1E.(Segment markers are also discussed in the related invention “Recordingand Receiving Voice Mail with Freeform Bookmarks”.)

While not illustrated in FIGS. 1A through 1E, a particular receiving VMSmay choose to provide a multi-tier menu when offering backgroundselections. For example, a first DTMF tone may signal the caller'schoice of easy listening as opposed to hard rock or other offeredcategories; upon receiving this first response, the VMS may offerspecific selections within that category. In such multi-tier approaches,a fast-path response may optionally be supported, whereby the caller (orhis phone) enters enough responses (such as multiple DTMF tones orperhaps through recognized voice commands) to navigate more than onetier of the menu at a time (including supplying a complete navigationpath with a single response). It will be obvious to one of ordinaryskill in the art how the interactions that have been depicted can beadapted to a multi-tier approach.

In the cases where the background is selected prior to the callerspeaking, there is preferably no explicit requirement that the calleractually speaks following his selection. If the caller chooses not tospeak at all, then preferably (1) the corresponding background selectionis not stored in cases where the message has multiple segments (some ofwhich contain a portion of a spoken voice message) or (2) an indicationmay simply be provided that a message was left (or that a call wasreceived) from this particular caller when there is no spoken messagecontent at all. This latter case is similar to the approach taken byprior art voice mail systems, which store the name (and perhaps thecalling number, date, and time) for incoming calls.

FIGS. 2A through 2C illustrate enhancing a voice mail message byselecting one or more background sound files to be mixed with asubsequently-delivered message, where the selected background files areprovided from the caller's telephone. FIGS. 2A and 2B differ in how manysound files are selected, and FIG. 2C illustrates the processing at thecaller's side of the connection in more detail. Each figure will now bedescribed.

In FIG. 2A, the caller 200 dials a number (which again may be the calledparty's number, or perhaps a voice mail service to which the calledparty subscribes), as shown at 202. The call is answered 203 by the VMS201, and the message recording starts 204. At some point (in thepreferred embodiment shown in FIG. 2A, at the start of the message,before the caller begins speaking), the caller selects a background file(as shown at 205). For purposes of illustration, suppose the callermakes his selection by pressing a “program button 4”. A background filethat is associated with this program button then begins to play (206).Preferably, the caller begins speaking soon thereafter (207), and thebackground sound continues to play until such time as the caller hangsup (208). When the caller hangs up, the VMS also stops recording (209).

As stated earlier, alternative selection means for the caller to selecthis background choice at 205 include use of a touch-sensitive screen, orperhaps a default background file is programmatically selected at 205without intervention by the caller. And instead of playing the selectedfile, the caller's phone may simply send the selection (e.g. as acompressed file) or an indication thereof (e.g. by sending a selectionnumber or URL). Furthermore, multi-tier selection systems (of the typepreviously described, where one or more tiers of sound categories mustbe navigated before selecting an individual file) may be accommodated;in this case, the selection action shown at 205 preferably comprisesnavigating through this multi-tier selection system until reaching aparticular file selection (or, alternatively, until the caller selects aparticular type or category as his background choice).

The interactions shown in FIG. 2B are similar to those described forFIG. 2A, except that the caller is now selecting multiple backgroundfiles. As in FIG. 2A, the caller 200 makes a connection (202, 203) tothe VMS 201, and message recording starts (204). In this example, thecaller's first background selection is shown using (by way of example) a“program button 1” (or equivalent selection means), as shown at 210.This background selection begins to play (211), and the caller beginsspeaking (212). At some point during the voice mail message, the callerdecides to change his background sound, and thus in this example hepresses “program button 2”, as shown at 213. This causes the previousbackground selection to stop (214), and the new selection now begins toplay (215). The caller again starts speaking (216), preferably shortlyafter selecting the new background. This process of selecting a newbackground sound, changing the background sound that is being played,and re-starting the voice mail message may be repeated (not shown inFIG. 2B) as desired by the caller. When the caller is finished, he hangsup (217) and the VMS stops recording (218).

Note that the approach used in FIGS. 1C and 1D, where the callerselected his background choice after leaving the corresponding voicemail message, is not readily adaptable to the scenarios depicted inFIGS. 2A and 2B in which the background selection is played from thecaller's phone along with the spoken message. (However, when abackground file or identification thereof is sent separately from thecaller's spoken message, then background files may be selected for aspoken message or message segment and may be transmitted before, after,or perhaps during the spoken message, as stated earlier.)

FIG. 2C illustrates the timing and interactions between the caller 220and his phone or phone system 221. (Note that references herein to a“phone” or “phone system” are for purposes of illustration and not oflimitation: devices which provide analogous functions, whether or notthose devices are considered to be a typical phone, may be usedalternatively without deviating from the inventive concepts disclosedherein.) As shown at 222, 223, the phone preferably performs normal(prior art) call setup operations to establish a connection (224) to thecalled party (i.e. to the receiving VMS, which serves as a surrogate forthe called party). (The called party or call receiver has not been shownexplicitly in FIG. 2C. Arrows pointing from the phone system 221 towardthe right of the chart are intended to represent interactions with thecalled party.) The caller selects background sounds (225, 228), and hisphone begins playing a sound file (226, 230) to the called party inresponse. (The sound file may also be heard by the caller, as indicatedby the dashed section of arrow 226.) Furthermore, a change in backgroundsound that is requested by the caller (228) causes the phone to stopusing the prior background sound (229). The caller speaks into his phone(227, 231), causing the phone to transmit his voice to the called party(not shown in FIG. 2C), preferably using prior art techniques. Andfinally, when the caller hangs up (232), normal prior art calldisconnect operations are preferably performed (233) by the phone totake down the connection to the called party.

While the figures that have been described show the background sound asbeing selected and starting to play at some particular time, othervariations may be provided instead of (or in addition to) those shown.For example, rather than waiting for a call to be established prior toselecting a background file in FIGS. 2A through 2C, the caller mayinstead pre-select the background before he dials the number.Additionally, the initial background selection might start to playimmediately after the number is dialed, or when the call is connected tothe receiver, or when a party (such as an automated VMS) answers on theother side of the connection, or perhaps not until the caller beginsspeaking. Alterations to the figures to support these alternatives willbe obvious to one of skill in the art.

Note that while FIGS. 2A through 2C (and FIG. 5, to be described below)indicate that the background sound “plays” from the caller's side of theconnection, this does not necessarily mean that the caller hears theplayout of the selection, as was stated earlier.

FIG. 3 illustrates enhancing a voice mail message by providing a defaultor predetermined background sound. This process is similar to that shownin FIG. 2A, except that now there is no requirement for the caller 300to explicitly select his background choice. Instead, he simply beginsspeaking (305) after the call with the VMS 301 has been set up, and thedefault background plays automatically (306). In an analogous manner tothat just discussed, the default background selection might start toplay immediately after the number is dialed, when the call is connectedto the receiver, or when a party (such as an automated VMS) answers onthe other side of the connection, or (as shown in FIG. 3) perhaps notuntil the caller begins speaking. Furthermore, the particular defaultselection to use may be determined in a number of ways, such as from thesingle selection available on a caller's phone, or by evaluatingconditions stored in the caller's profile, and so forth, as discussedearlier.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate enhancing a voice mail message by selectingaudio files that are to be embedded within that message upon playback tothe called party, where these audio files are selected from choices thatare available at the receiver. These figures differ in how many audiofiles are selected by the caller.

Note that the selections used in FIGS. 4A and 4B are audio files, notbackground sounds. Often, the selected audio file will be a musicselection. The caller might choose to leave an audio-only message,without any accompanying voice message. Or, the selected audio filesmight be intended for embedding within a voice message, which may or maynot have background sound associated therewith. (FIG. 9B illustrates adata structure that may be used to store these various combinations ofinformation at the receiver. As stated earlier, background sounds andaudio files are preferably not overlaid during playback to the listener,nor are they preferably overlaid on the caller's side of the connectionwhen the files are being delivered from the caller.) In implementationswhere combinations of background and audio files are supported, thecaller might be presented with a selection such as “enter 1 to requestan audio file or enter 2 to request a background file”, when using theprompting approach of FIGS. 1A through 1F; or, when the caller initiatesa selection (such as that shown in FIGS. 2A through 2C, as well as FIGS.4A and 4B and FIG. 5), a separate keystroke sequence or button may beprovided that indicates whether what the caller now wishes to select isa background file or an audio file. Furthermore, fast-path selections ofthe type previously discussed may be provided, such that the caller notonly selects the type of file he will be identifying but also providesthe identification thereof in a single input sequence.

In FIG. 4A, the caller 400 dials a number, as shown at 402, therebyestablishing a call (403) with the VMS 401, and message recording starts(404). At some arbitrary time during the voice message (405), the callerrequests (e.g. by pressing a key sequence that signals the VMS, as shownat 406) to select an audio file for embedding in the voice message. TheVMS thus prompts 407 the caller for his audio file choice. The callerthen chooses the audio file, which may be done by using DTMF tones asshown at 408 (or he may choose not to select an audio file,alternatively, by making a null selection using an appropriate keysequence). The VMS saves this selection internally 409, for subsequentplayback between the first and second segments of the voice message. (Asin the case of background file selections, the receiving VMS preferablydoes not store the sound of the DTMF tones for the called party to hear,but rather interprets them and may store them for further programmaticprocessing.) The caller then continues speaking his voice message (410),and hangs up (411) when he is finished, causing the VMS to stopsrecording (412).

The interactions shown in FIG. 4B are identical in elements 402 through410, whereby the caller 400 initiates the phone call, requests selectionof and then selects an audio file, with prompting by the VMS (whichrecords the selection), and then continues speaking. At some subsequenttime, the caller requests (420) to embed another audio file into hisvoice mail message. The process for selecting this next file to beembedded, shown as elements 420 through 423, is identical to thatdescribed with reference to interactions 406 through 409. After theaudio file has been selected, the caller may begin speaking again (424)if desired. Additional audio files may be selected (not shown in FIG.4B) if desired. Once the caller has finished his message, he hangs up(411) and the message recording stops (412).

While not shown in the figures, the caller may choose to use backgroundsounds and audio files within a single voice mail message. It will beobvious to one of skill in the art how the figures may be adapted forthis situation.

FIG. 5 illustrates enhancing a person-to-person telephone conversationbetween the caller and called party by using background sounds. In theillustrated embodiment, the background sounds are transmitted from thecaller's phone, in a similar manner to that which has been describedabove with reference to FIGS. 2A though 2C and FIG. 3.

In this embodiment, the process begins with the caller 500 picking uphis phone (502) and then selecting a particular background sound (503)using, for example, a key sequence or a predefined button (shown in theexample as “program button 4”). The selected background sound (which maybe, for example, the caller's personal “theme song”) may begin to playbefore the caller dials the number (505) of the called party 501. (Or,in alternative embodiments, the background sound may begin to play afterthe number is dialed, or while the caller is dialing, or perhaps onlyafter the connection is established or the called party answers thecall.) Optionally, an implementation may provide for use of a defaultbackground sound, or a background sound that is chosen programmaticallywithout intervention of the caller, rather than requiring an explicitselection at 503. When the called party answers (506), the caller andcalled party then begin speaking (507, 508). Preferably, the caller'sbackground sound plays throughout this conversation, until the callerhangs up (509), which may occur before or after the called party hangsup (510).

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate enhancing a voice mail message by sending anaudio file (or an identification which can be used to retrieve thedesired audio file) to a receiver, where this audio file may be used tosupplement a voice mail message or perhaps as a substitute for a voicemail message. Preferably, this technique is used for audio signaturemessages (although this is for purposes of illustration and not oflimitation). Audio signatures are preferably chosen by the caller, andmay contain the caller's name, a short music file, or any other type ofsound. An audio signature may be left as a message when, for example,the signature itself is sufficient to convey to the receiver that aparticular person called. (The signature may also convey additionalinformation, of course, depending on its audio content.) An audiosignature may be provided with a voice mail message, perhaps at thebeginning of the message (or stored separately from the message) for usein quickly identifying who the message is from. Suppose a particularindividual has several messages stored in his VMS. He may choose tolisten only to the audio signatures, as a way of “skimming” through hisvoice mail (in the same way a person skims through his conventional mailby looking at the outside of the envelopes). This provides a moreefficient means of processing voice mail than listening to messages insequence, and may also be more efficient than attempting to skim themessages by listening to the first few seconds of the message (in thosecases where the audio signatures are available and are sufficient forthis purpose).

FIG. 6A illustrates the caller 600 selecting (605) an audio file to betransmitted from his phone to VMS 601, causing his phone to send theidentified file (606), which is then saved (607) by the VMS as the voicemail message. As illustrated in these figures, the caller may select theaudio file using a sequence of characters, or alternatively may useother selection means such as a touch-sensitive screen; or, a defaultselection may be used, or a selection may be chosen programmatically(using, for example, a profile for this caller). FIG. 6B is similar,except that instead of sending a sound file, an identifier (see 610) ofthe audio file selected (605) by the caller 600 is sent to VMS 601, andthis identifier is preferably stored (611) by the VMS.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate ways in which a background sound or audiofile to be used with the present invention may be obtained anddownloaded to the caller's phone or phone system. (As will be obvious,these illustrations are for purposes of illustration and not oflimitation.) In preferred embodiments, the file(s) to be downloaded maybe used with the scenarios depicted in FIGS. 2A through 2C, or in FIG. 3or 5, as the selectable or default file(s) to be provided from thecaller's phone.

As shown in FIG. 7A, the download process preferably begins with thecaller 700 dialing the phone number (702) of a system 701 from whichbackground sound and/or audio files can be obtained. The illustratedtechniques may be used, for example, when the caller uses apay-per-download service from a system 701, although system 701 mayalternatively provide a subscription service or perhaps a free service.If the service requires payment of a fee, the caller may perhaps have anestablished account, which he uses to pay for his selections. In onepossible model, the caller may be charged a flat rate to download allselections that are available, or in another model, he may be chargedper selection. If the service requires payment of a fee, this fee mayappear on the subscriber's phone bill.

Note that when fee payment is required when using the present invention,the fees are preferably paid by the caller. This includes cases wherethe caller's selection is retrieved by the VMS, for example, using a URLsent by the caller. This is consistent with the “Calling Party Pays”model that is standard in telephony, and is appropriate for the presentinvention because in some preferred embodiments, the called party has noopportunity to accept or decline receipt of particular messages ormessage segments by virtue of their having fee-related background oraudio file content. In alternative preferred embodiments, however, thecalled party may be given the ability to suppress inserted audio filesduring playback and/or background sounds as well, provided the insertionor mixing has not already occurred. Or, a particular VMS may be adaptedto suppressing such files. This ability to suppress background and/orinserted audio files may be provided as a selectable option on aper-call basis, or may be applied to all calls for a particular calledparty, or may be selectively applied based upon a called party'spreviously-stored preferences, and so forth.

After the connection is established (preferably using prior art callsetup techniques as indicated at 703, 704), the caller preferably logsin (705) to the offered service, after which the system presents a menu(706) from which the caller can make his selection. The caller thenselects (707) one or more files to be downloaded, and the downloadprocess begins (708). In some cases, the caller may be limited to whatis available, rather than having a selection capability; or a selectionmay perhaps be made for the caller based on his previously-storedpreferences. Once the download is complete (709), the caller preferablyhangs up (710) and the connection is terminated (711) using prior artcall disconnection techniques.

Instead of making a telephone connection to a file provider, files maybe downloaded from a remote location such as the Internet. Thisalternative is illustrated in FIG. 7B, where caller 700 makes atelephone connection to a Web site (represented as system 701). As withFIG. 7A, the service may be a pay-per-download, subscription, or perhapsa free service (which may, for example, obtain its revenues throughadvertising on its menu selection page). Once a menu has been presentedto the caller (706), he preferably selects one or more selections (720)to be downloaded from the Internet. The selections are then located(721), for example by following a selected URL, and downloaded (722) tothe caller's phone or phone system. When the download of Web files iscomplete (723), the caller preferably hangs up (710) and the connectionis terminated (711), as in FIG. 7A.

In another embodiment, the selection of the file to download may be madevia an alternate device and a network. For example, the selection may bemade by the subscriber by using a computer browser to access a Web pagethat provides a menu of selections. In this example, the subscriberpreferably provides an identifier (such as a log-in password) to aserver, selects a file from those offered, and the server thencommunicates to the service infrastructure the digital data to bedownloaded. The download itself may perhaps occur during idle time, orduring a call (or connection) to the service system intended for thispurpose.

FIG. 8 provides a flowchart of logic that may be used in preferredembodiments to implement the playback of a voice mail message to alistener. This process begins at Block 800, which checks to see if thereare any segments of the current voice mail message that have not beenplayed. If this test has a negative result, then the playback isfinished, and the processing of FIG. 8 ends. (When a message has notbeen divided into segments, then a negative result at Block 800 mayindicate that the entire message has been processed from start to finishin one pass through the logic of FIG. 8.) Otherwise, when the test has apositive result, control transfers to Block 810 where the next segmentof the current message is obtained. (The manner in which the segments ofa message are located will be described in more detail below withreference to the data structures shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B.)

Block 820 then asks whether a background sound has been identified forthis message segment. If not, then the message segment is simply played(Block 830), after which control returns to Block 800 to continueprocessing this message. If the test in Block 820 has a positive result,on the other hand (i.e. there is a background sound for this segment),then the background sound file is accessed (Block 840), and thebackground sound and voice message are played concurrently (Block 850).As has been discussed, the background sound may be identified with a URLor other identifier, or it may be provided as the contents of a file.(Furthermore, the mixing process may have already been performed priorto playback, in which case the logic of FIG. 8 is preferably used forthat mixing process; the playback then comprises simply playing thealready-mixed file.) After the playing of the current segment finishes,control returns to Block 800.

As previously noted, in some cases the background sound may be of longerduration than, or shorter duration than, the corresponding messagesegment. When the background sound is longer, it is preferably truncatedonce playback of the voice message segment completes. When thebackground sound is shorter, it may be allowed to end while the voicemessage continues to play; or, alternatively, the background sound maybe “wrapped” such that it repeats as many times as necessary until thevoice message segment playback is complete.

There may perhaps be short breaks in the continuity of a message that iscreated by mixing segments of voice with segments of background or soundfiles, for example due to the time it took the caller to identify theassociated file or merely because of the change from one segment toanother. However, prior art techniques are available that may be used tosmooth such transitions and minimize dead time within messages.

When the teachings of the present invention are used with conventionalanswering machines that may not have the capability to mix multipleaudio streams, then the mixing operation is preferably performed priorto transmitting the voice mail message to the answering machine (forexample, by the caller's phone or perhaps by the telco).

FIGS. 9A and 9B depict example data structures that may be used by animplementation of the present invention. As will be obvious, these aremerely one format in which the information may be stored.

As shown in FIG. 9A, each message may comprise some number of messagesegments. Each message segment is preferably stored as a segment number(which may be optional in some implementations), a numeric identifiercorresponding to the background file selected for this segment, and thecaller's message, as shown at element 900. Example code that may be usedto support this message structure is shown at elements 910, 920, and930. An upper limit on the number of segments in a particular message isshown at 910 as having the value 500, for purposes of illustration. Themessage structure 920 for each segment preferably stores the (optional)segment number and background selection number as integers, and stores apointer to a file in which the content of the message segment is stored(perhaps as a wave file). Preferably, an array structure (or a linkedlist structure) is used as a container for the segments of a particularmessage, as shown at 930. If no background sound has been selected, thenthe background selection number may be a negative 1 or otherpredetermined value to indicate this situation to the mixing process.

FIG. 9B illustrates an alternative approach that may be used when bothbackground sound and embedded audio files are supported. Again, eachmessage may comprise some number of message segments, and in thisapproach each message segment is preferably stored as a segment number(which may be optional), a selection type and selection number, and anoptional caller message, as shown at element 940. The selection typeindicates whether the selection number represents a background soundthat is associated with the caller message stored in this segment, orinstead represents an embedded audio file (in which case there ispreferably no caller message for this segment). Example code that may beused to support this message structure is shown at elements 950, 960,and 970. An upper limit on the number of segments in a particularmessage is shown at 950, and again has the value 500 for purposes ofillustration. The message structure 960 for each segment preferablystores the (optional) segment number, as well as the selection type andselection number, as integers. Furthermore, the message structure 960preferably stores a pointer to a file in which the content of themessage segment is stored, where this pointer has a null value forinstances of “msg_struct” that store audio file selection information.As in FIG. 9A, an array structure 970 (or a linked list structure) ispreferably used as a container for the segments of a particular message.

When background and audio files are identified in other ways than withuse of numeric identifiers, such as by providing a file address or URL,then the message structures 920, 960 may be adapted appropriately inways that will be obvious to those of skill in the art.

The segments of a message may be processed (for example, during mixingor playback) by an in-order traversal of the message array 930 or 970.Or, the segment numbers stored within each segment may be used toselectively locate a particular segment. (As an alternative to storingsegment numbers explicitly, an array indexing operation may be used forthis purpose.) Preferably, a new instance of “msg_struct” is createdeach time a change in background occurs and each time an audio file isto be embedded within a voice message, thereby implicitly segmenting thevoice mail message accordingly. In addition, a new instance ispreferably created when the caller explicitly indicates a change inmessage segments (as described above with reference to element 160 ofFIG. 1F).

Note that the voice mail system may employ a database to contain thevoice messages and/or their pertinent information, and the structure ofeach message and message segment may therefore vary from what is shownin FIGS. 9A and 9B—although the basic stored information is preferablythe same.

While the data structures shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B contemplate storingthe content of each message segment separately from the structuralinformation (including the identifiers of background and audio files),such that the files can be dynamically mixed upon playback to alistener, the stored content may alternatively comprise the results ofthe mixing (although this alternative may have negative performanceimplications, especially in terms of redundant storage that would berequired for background and audio files that were selected for usemultiple times).

Furthermore, the structure shown in FIG. 9A enables quick determinationof whether a particular voice mail message has associated backgroundsounds (and/or audio files, when using the structure shown in FIG. 9B).This provides advantages when processing stored messages. For example,the background and/or audio content for an individual message can beeasily suppressed by selecting to omit the associated files. And, whenembedded audio files are used for audio signatures, a convention may beadopted whereby a first instance of “msg_struct” is used to record theaudio file (if any) to be used as the audio signature; a listener maythen choose to skim through her voice messages by playing only theseidentified audio signatures. Similarly, a listener may skim throughvoice messages by playing one (or perhaps some limited number) of theaudio files for each recorded message, or perhaps by playing one or moreof the message segments (which may have associated background sounds),without imposing conventions on what may be stored therein. Many suchadvantageous techniques may be implemented using the teachings disclosedherein.

As has been demonstrated, the present invention provides advantageoustechniques to alleviate disadvantages of distance communication, forexample by conveying context such as emotions in voice mail messages andtelephone conversations, and for enhancing the enjoyment andproductivity of communicating with voice mail or by telephone.

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, embodiments of thepresent invention may be provided as methods, systems, or computerprogram products. Accordingly, the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment oran embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, thepresent invention may take the form of a computer program product whichis embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, butnot limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and so forth)having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention has been described with reference to flowchartillustrations and/or flow diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the invention. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/orflow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrationsand/or flows in the flow diagrams, can be implemented by computerprogram instructions. These computer program instructions may beprovided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purposecomputer, embedded processor or other programmable data processingapparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, whichexecute via the processor of the computer or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, create means for implementing the functionsspecified in the flowchart and/or flow diagram block(s) or flow(s).

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart and/or flowdiagram block(s) or flow(s).

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart and/or flow diagram block(s) or flow(s). Furthermore, theinstructions may be executed by more than one computer or dataprocessing apparatus, such that some aspects of the present inventionoperate (for example) at a VMS while other aspects operate at a telco,an audio mixing apparatus, or elsewhere.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed, additional variations and modifications in those embodimentsmay occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basicinventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claimsshall be construed to include both the preferred embodiments and allsuch variations and modifications as fall within the spirit and scope ofthe invention.

1. A system for improving telephone conversations, comprising: acomputer comprising a processor; instructions which execute, using theprocessor, to perform functions comprising: selecting, by a caller, abackground sound to be incorporated into a telephone conversationbetween the caller and a called party; enabling the called party tochoose whether the selected background sound will be suppressed insteadof incorporated; and incorporating the selected background sound intothe telephone conversation only if the called party does not choose tosuppress it.
 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the selectedbackground sound is a theme song of the caller.
 3. The system accordingto claim 1, wherein the incorporating is performed by conferencing theselected background sound into a 3-way call between the caller and thecalled party.
 4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the selectedbackground sound is a default background sound for the caller.
 5. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein the selected background sound isprogrammatically selected based on an identification of the calledparty.
 6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the enabling furthercomprises allowing the called party to choose to suppress all backgroundsound from telephone conversations initiated by the caller.
 7. Acomputer program product for improving telephone conversations, thecomputer program product embodied on at least one non-transitorycomputer-usable storage medium and comprising computer-usable programcode for: selecting, by a caller, a background sound to be incorporatedinto a telephone conversation between the caller and a called party;enabling the called party to choose whether the selected backgroundsound will be suppressed instead of incorporated; and incorporating theselected background sound into the telephone conversation only if thecalled party does not choose to suppress it.
 8. The computer programproduct according to claim 7, wherein the selected background sound is atheme song of the caller.
 9. The computer program product according toclaim 7, wherein the incorporating is performed by conferencing theselected background sound into a 3-way call between the caller and thecalled party.
 10. The computer program product according to claim 7,wherein the selected background sound is a default background sound forthe caller.
 11. The computer program product according to claim 7,wherein the selected background sound is programmatically selected basedon an identification of the called party.
 12. The computer programproduct according to claim 7, wherein the enabling further comprisesallowing the called party to choose to suppress all background soundfrom telephone conversations initiated by the caller.